Godzilla Lands in Cali

My collection of Japanese baseball players has expanded exponentially over the past decade.  The main push for this growth has been fellow bloggers sending me care packages featuring guys like Hideo Nomo, Ichiro Suzuki, Shohei Ohtani, Daisuke Matsuzaka, and today's featured athlete: Hideki Matsui (also known as Godzilla).

Kenny over at Torren' Up Cards recently experimented with some PWE's to see how long it would take for them to travel across the Pacific Ocean.

I'm sure glad I was one of the guinea pigs, because inside the first PWE was this signed Matsui card:

2010 Topps Heritage #310

According to Kenny this was signed in Staten Island about ten years ago.  Now normally a card of this magnitude would be the highlight of most care packages, but there was another card that just might have trumped it:

2012 Sega Card-Gen #J12-EX-R06

Matsui only played in Oakland for one season, so you don't see too many cards with him wearing the A's logo.  That in itself makes this card a treasured item in my collection.

But when I flipped it over, I saw the word "Congratulations" written on the back and figured this might be a prize card handed out at a Sega-Gen tournament.  I looked all over the internet to find more information about this card, but couldn't even find it on TCDB.  Well Kenny confirmed it for me.

The first PWE also contained a pair of WBC cards from 2009 featuring Yu Darvish and Hisashi Iwakuma:

The second PWE contained the same duo, but in Card-Gen form.

Thank you Kenny!  When it comes to testing out the postal service, you can use me anytime.

Happy Sunday and sayonara!

Extra Innings

Earlier in the year, I had planned on doing a series called Monday Munchies where I'd test out a bunch of Japanese snacks that Ryan (also known as SumoMenkoMan) sent me.  Well I got distracted and a few of these snacks expired over the summer.

Figured I'd open them up and see if they were still edible.  They were.  The first three snack packs contained vanilla wafers.  The fourth package contained a very similar wafer snack, but it was strawberry flavored.  And the package on the far right contained two grape flavored gummies.  All were yummy... and all contained cards.  Here's what I pulled:

I'm guessing all of these are anime shows or manga titles.  I have heard of Demon Slayer, but haven't watched or read it.  The only one I have seen is Sakamoto Days on Netflix.  It's pretty entertaining.

I still have a few more snacks to try out, so hopefully I can get back on track and post at least one Monday Munchies post each month to end 2025.  Until then...

Thank you Ryan for these snack packs!

Sweet & Spicy

This title of this post was inspired by a bag of Japanese rice crackers from Trader Joe's.  I was sitting down yesterday watching a few episodes of Andor, when I remembered I had purchased a bag of these snacks.

It reminded me that I hadn't done a Monday Munchies post for the month of May.  If you're not familiar with this series, it's where I review some Japanese snacks that Ryan @ SumoMenkoMan sent me earlier in the year.

Today's featured snack is two packages of 2024 Bandai Ive Wafers.  Here's a peek at the packages:

2024 Bandai Ive

2024 Bandai Ive

And here's a view of the contents in one of the packages:

The wafer is very similar to the inside of a Kit Kat bar, so it's definitely on the "sweet" side.

2024 Bandai Ive #12

2024 Bandai Ive #19

As for the group, I wasn't familiar with them until today... but according to Wikipedia they're a South Korean girl group.  Just like the wafer, they seem to be more "sweet" than "spicy".

Don't worry, because things are definitely going to heat up in this post.  Kenny over at Torren' Up Cards sent me a box with a bunch of autographs and memorabilia cards featuring some very attractive women.

Let's start with a ten card lot of Yumi Sugimoto costume cards:

Sugimoto is a Japanese model and actress.  Although she's wearing some short shorts and dresses, she comes off as being "sweet".

2010 Produce Yumi Sugimoto Costume Card #11

I'm guessing there was a time when Kenny was building this costume card set as he sent me ten out of the first eleven cards.

Next up were a stack of Honoka cards:

Not sure if Honoka is a model, singer, or actress... but she's definitely "spicier" than Yumi.

Check out that signature with the heart and a bunny rabbit sketch!  She definitely takes pride in signing her autograph for fans.

The final Honoka card is a signed costume card:

Here are more autographs from random models:

One of them was a little too "spicy" for the blog, so I had to blur things out.  No complaints though... because these were some gorgeous additions to my Japanese Model PC.

Here are four "cheki":

I learned about these over on Kenny's blog.  They're small Polaroids taken and signed by the models for their fans.  I started off with "sweet" on the left, but things get "spicier" as you progress to the right.

Before I show off my favorite autograph out of Kenny's care package, let's check out all of the unopened packs he included:

Kenny has been one of the biggest contributors to my unopened Japanese pack collection.  I might eventually open up the 2024 Topps Japan pack, but the other eleven are going into the collection.

Okay... here's my favorite:

2012 BBM Dancing Heroine Autograph #HO11

BBM's Dancing Heroine sets feature NPB baseball cheerleaders.  Out of all of their product lines, this is my favorite.

I'm not familiar with Yu-ka, but she might have been a cheerleader for the Softbank Hawks about a decade ago.  I like the simple design, well-cropped photo, and well-placed on-card autograph.  The flower in the signature is a nice touch.

There are a few more cards out of Kenny's care package that I want to share, but I'm going to wait until later in the summer (after I acquire a certain 2025 Topps Series 2 insert card).

Until then, let me wrap up this post with the latest additions to my 2011 Topps Update set build.

These twenty cards arrived last week from Greg over at The Collective Mind:

The other thirteen cards were from Chris @ The Collector:

They turned my wantlist from this:

To this:

Thanks to Greg, Chris, Tom, AJ, and Jim... I'm down to needing only fifty-four cards left for my sweet set build.

Thank you Ryan for providing today's snack packs.  And thank you Kenny for all of these "sweet" additions to my Japanese model and unopened wax pack collections!

Happy Monday and sayonara!

Monday Munchies #2: Japanese Hoops, Gundam Warriors, and Wacky Stuff

By the time this post is published, I'll be right in the middle of first period.  That's about the time I snack on a granola bar or a piece of fruit to prevent my stomach from growling.

But today, I'll be eating these wafer cookies I pulled out of these two packs of 2024 Bandai Akatsuki Japan:

These were part of a package Ryan (SumoMenkoMan) sent me back in January.  He's sent me a bunch of Japanese snacks that I will be reviewing on here every now and then.

Each of these packs contain one card and two individually wrapped chocolate wafers (similar to Kit Kats):

I already at one of the wafers, but I brought the rest to my classroom.  The cards are two members of Akatsuki Japan, which is Japan's men's national basketball team.  Here are the two guys I pulled:

2024 Bandai Akatsuki Japan #10

2024 Bandai Akatsuki Japan #06

I honestly don't keep up with basketball in Japan, but it doesn't look like either of these guys were on the 2024 Summer Olympics roster.

The other snack pack I opened was this 2024 Bandai Gundam pack:

Here's the contents:

I couldn't really figure out the flavor of this cracker, but it was savory.  Maybe a fish flavored?

As for the card, it features one of those Gundam warriors:

2024 Bandai Gundam #12N

I'm not an expert on this manga, but I've seen some of the model kits and they're pretty cool.

I've decided to pair these snacks with some food related Wacky Packages that John (over at Johnny's Trading Spot) sent my way:

These six cards are a complete set of 2010 Topps Wacky Packages Series 7 Cereal Box Bonus Stickers.  It might be hard to tell from the scans, but each of the above stickers is sealed in a cellophane wrapper and each were included in a different Wacky Packages cereal box.

Each cellophane pack also included one Web Bonus Card.  Here's a look at the entire three card set:

Thank you Ryan for the snack packs!  And thank you John for these Wacky Packages!

Happy Monday and sayonara!